Good Ending To The Week!!

Knowing my interest in photography a couple of my students have told me about Parklow Farm, Marton, run by David and Ann Taylor, which is only about 2 miles from were I live, they not only have Trout Pools, but also have Hides positioned around their farm, all hides are situated with photography in mind and face N.E. and from the information on their web site each hide has a mixture of different species and although I am not a great lover of being sat in a hide for hours, this may warrant a visit as it would seem you can wonder between hides, it would seem that it is best to book and there is a fee payable. My good ending to the week also includes my good friend getting me tickets to Macclesfield's next two home matches this Tuesday Evening and Saturday afternoon and with half term only three weeks away (HOORAY TWO WHOLE WEEKS OFF) I have just booked a holiday in Jersey!! Also have started to plan for my October half term which is going to be spent in Spain. I also have to stop playing with my new Apple I Pad and get round to sifting through my photo's and get them up loaded to my Zenfolio site. Have a lot of catching up to do!!

The Moors Revisited.

Had a good friend Di Stone come over for the day and took her up to the moors to meet the Red Grouse, spent a really good enjoyable four hours and saw more than I have seen on any previous visits and they were all pairing up so they tended to stay out in the open longer, pity the sun did not shine as much as forecast but we had a good time never the less, had a pit stop at the Ice Cream Farm and then back home to watch the feeders for Di to have a crack at the Redpoll, adding Reed Bunting and Linnet to my count now standing at 32.

Just Enjoying The Garden.

After work I was able to spend an hour just enjoying watching the feeders, while I waited for my shopping to be delivered, good numbers of Redpoll, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Long-Tail Tits, sparrows, Blue and Great Tits, had three Greenfinch down together and all quite happy to come down with the windows wide open, but still only had the one Coal tit and not very often, still had no sign of a Nuthatch which I really miss seeing as they are one of my favourite birds, had the Wren today but only fleetingly, as Bosley Reservoir is virtually my back garden decided to walk round to the dam after tea for another crack at the Sunset, the scenic shots below are of the Bridge were I have always got the sunset from before, Bosley Minn were I was on Monday evening and two of the sunset taken from the overflow bridge on the dam wall, the only problem with the sunset here is that it is obscured by trees and buildings before you see it disappear below the horizon and no were near as colourful as Monday evening. On the way back managed to add to the species count when I saw a pair of Great Crested Grebe, total now up to 30.

Sunset Seen From Bosley Minn.

Before going home I called to see if the food left at the Badger set had been taken, unfortunately not, Badgers were seen there last year, but alas they seem no more, ( I have seen two recently dead in the road on the way to Congleton ) I have left the food in place just in case there may be a wondering Badger looking for a Des Res. Then while the weather was still good there was more digging out of the pathway at the back of my property and bird feeders to be filled, then after a quick tea I decided to go up to bosley Minn to catch the Sunset, Bosley Minn is a prominent hill in southeast Cheshire, the long axis of the Minn runs NNE-SSW and its broad summit which reaches to 1,266 ft at its highest point, slopes away to the valley of the Shell Brook in the east and towards Bosley Reservoir in the west, it is the western aspect of the hill facing Bosley which is known as Bosley Minn whilst the eastern side which faces the village of Wincle is referred to as Wincle Minn.

On The Moors!!

Woke early to a beautiful day, had a quick whizz round with the hoover so as not to feel guilty about the house work not getting done and by 8am was on the way up to the Moors, not been since between Christmas and the New Year and it was great to enjoy not just the weather but the peace and quiet, a joy to be able to concentrate on my own photo's without having to worry about passengers not being at the right angle for their shots, could not resist a play around with the Herons at the heronry at Macclesfield Forrest on the way by, I counted 12 just on my side of the Heronry viewing area knowing there is more round the other side not in view until they fly in and out and caught two Great Crested Grebes displaying to each other, on the moors there were good numbers of Grouse, Golden Plover and Lapwing and on the way back saw two kestrel's together on the wires, first time I have seen two together before but only one stayed to have it's photo taken. Was back for breakfast by 9.30 am as had to be back for 10am for my visitor.

Macclesfield V Grimsby!!

What a day, had fantastic ticket's to my local teams match that found me in the Directors seating area, welcomed personally by one of the Directors, who at half time took us into their exclusive lounge for soup, nibbles and drinks!! On the pitch it was a whole hearted down to earth scrap, against a team five places above us in the league table. We did not deserve to go one down after 37 mins and to add salt to the wound it was scored by Connor Jennings, who is out on loan to Grimsby but at the beginning of the season he was on loan to us!! until injury put him out before Christmas, ( he was not expected to be fit enough to play the rest of the season) and this was only his second game back. We held on well even though our Goalkeeper (not our usual one) made unbelievable errors some that could easily have cost us the match, I can only assume he was still suffering a concussion from being knocked out for half an hour in the game against Northwich in the Cheshire Senior Cup. It went right to the last minute of three minute extra time when we were awarded a well earned penalty and the match ended one all!!! Well done you Silkmen!!!

Able To Post Again At Last!!

When I bought my new computer the only thing that could not be transferred from my old one was the Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0, I didn't have a disk and it's the only version that I know how to use (although I know there are more up-to-date versions available), I was able to down load a Free Trial but that ended at the end of February, so really glad to receive a disk that I purchased on E-Bay today, so back in business so to speak. I have been waiting for a road side display of daffodils to come into flower but they are still only in bud, so to remind you all to wear a Daffodil for March for the Marie Curie Cancer Care these ones are out of my own garden. I came home on the last day of February to these colourful sky's, although they did not last lon